There’s one thing that is certain; anxiety and in particular social anxiety is not fun. I know this for a fact because I suffered with it throughout my entire youth and even into my college years. The good news is there is hope and there are strategies besides drugs that can completely eliminate this burden from your life.
The following are a few of the techniques I have taken and modified from Panic Away, one of the greatest products I’ve ever used.
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Anyhow, here some techniques that have helped me and others conquer social anxiety.The first step before attempting any of the following techniques is to recognize what your triggers and response (symptoms) are. This will allow you to become aware of the first cause and apply tools that stop the anxiety in its tracks.
Deep Breathing
When you recognize you’re becoming fearful in social situations, stop and try to focus on taking slow, deep breaths. When social anxiety kicks in, fear enters the mind and physically your breathing becomes more shallow. By changing your physiology through breathing, you cut the feedback loop and send the mind a signal that “you are fine.” This in turn can and often will reduce feelings of fearfulness. However, there’s another factor at play that assists in making this happen; focus. When you dedicate all of your focus on something sensory such as breath, the mind has no fear to dwell on. This is the same purpose and function as meditation. If you’re interested in learning more about meditation and anxiety
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
When you start to feel the slightest anxiety symptom starting to come on, focus on each muscle starting with the tips of your toes and moving up. Take a moment and really focus on making that particular muscle as relaxed as possible. Sometimes it’s useful to use imagery for this and envision something like a rubber band going back to it’s natural, unstretched state. Or imagine whatever images work best for you. Again this not only changes your body’s physiology and takes the focus away from the fear.
Body Observation
Also called scanning, this technique is similar to those above in that you’re taking the focus away from the fear and moving it to a sensory experience. In this instance, when you start to feel a symptom coming on, rather than becoming uncomfortable, welcome these feelings and start to observe (not judge) where they are in your body. What does your fear look like from an outsider looking in? What does it feel like? If you were to give it a color, what would it be? By answering these questions and observing without judgement, you allow a separation from yourself and the fear. When you’re finally able to acknowledge and recognize that the fear is not you and not something in and of itself, it loses all power of you.
Embrace the Vulnerability
Lets face it, we naturally don’t like anyone to see us in a state of weakness, fear or powerlessness. It’s our egos way of trying to stay alive and remain in control. However, when we shift our perception and embrace the fear and everything it causes, that fear loses its power. This means loving the fear, welcoming it in with open arms but not indulging it’s request which is namely: “I want you to stay afraid of nothing.” When you enter a state of acceptance yet detached mindset, you become okay with showing others how you feel. You learn it’s okay to be vulnerable and that it’s actually the vulnerability that endears people to you.
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